Chestnut mushroom

Appearance

Foals		Foals have a sepia-toned or pale beige coat; mane and tail are typically lighter. They may darken with age.

Foals

Foals have a sepia-toned or pale beige coat;

mane and tail are typically lighter. They may

darken with age.

Chestnut mushroom horses have a distinctive sepia-toned color, often with a lighter mane and tail.		Adults

Chestnut mushroom horses have a

distinctive sepia-toned color, often

with a lighter mane and tail.

Adults

Genetics

Chestnut mushroom is the result of a chestnut base diluted by two copies of mushroom. The mushroom (mu) dilution is an allele of the MFSD12 gene.

Chestnut mushroom:
Chestnut (e/e) + mu/mu

Horses with only one copy of mushroom are called mushroom carriers. They might not show a visible difference, but they can pass the allele on to their foals!

Read more:
Chestnut | Bay mushroom

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Articles

Tanaka, J., Leeb, T., Rushton, J., Famula, T.R., Mack, M., Jagannathan, V., Flury, C., Bachmann, I., Eberth, J., McDonnell, S.M., Penedo, M.C.T., Bellone, R.R.; Frameshift Variant in MFSD12 Explains the Mushroom Coat Color Dilution in Shetland Ponies; Genes (2019); Doi: 10.3390/genes10100826